Art and creativity are so beneficial for your health and mental abilities and they really make life worth living. But of course there's always a drawback.

What are the different types of spiritual art that you can create? How can art therapy help you heal? Here's a colorful post!

Delve into the transformative effects of creative arts in healing emotional wounds.

Dallas-based artist Alexis Franklin considers her digital renderings a reinvention of the expected. “I’ve always seen the world through a filter that brings vibrance and excitement to things most people wouldn’t notice, and that’s something that I really want to have come across in my work,” she says of her expressive paintings. Through facial expressions, gestures, and color, each work highlights the nuances of the subjects’ experience, personality, and mood. A church videographer by day, painting is Franklin’s side-project and one for which she’s received an influx of attention in recent days. More

#

Discover practical, daily rituals to nurture creativity and ignite your imagination. Let's embrace a more inspired life!

Your Psyche Has Many Different Parts Years ago, when I started exploring my psyche through expressive art, I was astounded to discover all the different parts of self that I had inside. As my various personality aspects poured out in my spontaneous art, I discovered unacceptable emotions such as need,...

Introducing you to the role of Art Therapy, this online course teaches how to use art to address psychological and emotional needs. Buy today and start learning.

Editor's Note: We're happy to welcome Cassia Cogger to the Dear Handmade Life blog. We love Cassia's philosophy that art happens anywhere! Below she shares three artful self-care exercises to help you connect with yourself and relax through art. The instructions are loose and are meant to be a jumping off point. Take the pressure off

Picasso styled Self-Portrait of Peter Klashorst, Peter Klashorst 2016, Multi media mix on paper, 2016 series Original work on paper of Peter Klashorst. Size 30x42 cm. Verso signed and dated NewWild AfterNature Expressionist Peter Klashorst is a renown visual Dutch Artist growing in strenght year after year perfecting his visual expressions in colorful contrasts. References: www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/NG-1990-25-26 www.mutualart.com/Artist/Peter-Klashorst/E328B5FFC8914690... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Klashorst www.peter-klashorst.com/exhibition.html www.saatchiart.com/peterklashorst www.franshalsmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/zoeken-de-collectie/v... Peter Klashorst, a boy with a brush: His style is characterized by quick and fast painting without much patience or attention for details. Some of his styles are repetitive throughout his career. After Nature was all about 'paint as much a possible what you like or see without being bordered by the classic tradition of painting'. Hence his quick style of fast impatiently painting but not being an impressionist with stripes and dots like van Gogh. True falsifier of his own Art: Most disputable is his multi mixed media portrait style, modified in Photoshop, printed on (photo-) paper or canvas (Glycee) and then quickly over-painted with his brush. Often the same painting is reprinted again and repainted with his brush. You can say: 'Klashorst is a true falsifier of his own Art'. Showcase for psychologists: Much of his work is made in just a couple of hours. He is well known for his 'morning drawings' made in the morning after coffee or just before brunch. His impatiently, nervous painting style is driven by a hunger and obsession for young girls and sex while he himself is growing older seeking satisfaction of his soul. Rarely one will see deep emotions or human tragedy in his characters or paintings; often they look emotionless or offending. His famous skulls are his antipode to this. Peter Klashorst is a showcase for psychologists. Enfant terrible: Peter Klashorst is the enfant terrible of all famous Dutch painters today and through time. He is the late James Dean of the painting art throwing himself with high speed off the cliff. He is a Rebel without a Cause. Ref: Kunstkannibaal (Art Cannibal) www.bol.com/nl/p/kunstkannibaal/1001004011551461/ Copycat Outlet: His impatience with painting in itself (no patience to paint ears or hands, only face and eyes) led to his Copycat cartoons and cow prints. Re-makes of Mickey mouse and the crazy cow in his typical Klashorst style. His cartoons and political statements are impulsive, non-fundamental expressions lacking profound thoughts. It are reflections of what he red or saw in the Dutch Newspaper of the day. Free style Factory: His free style reprinting and rebrushing is inspired by the Factory of Andy Warhol who was refabricating his portraits and designs in countless editions with recolored styles of the same theme. Klashorst reissues many of his works in different Neue Wilde contrasts and expressions. Die Neue Wilde von Amsterdam: The After Nature style (1987 nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Nature ) of Klashorst sometimes shows highlights in a neo-romantic manner with some level of attention for details although more often unfinished. The Neue Wilden (1981) from Germany (at full swing in Berlin at the time de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Wilde including Nick Cave The Birthday Party 1982) inspired Klashorst to become a bad boy even more loosen his After Nature art. Klashorst became the Neue Wilde of Amsterdam. He is most famously known in the Netherlands. After Nature in a Neue Wilde manner: It took a while before Klashorst mastered his Neue Wilde style of After Nature. After his sexual escapades in Mombasa and Cambodia he produced some of his most colorful mixed multimedia works including his famous series of Pop and Street Art. His After Nature style in a Neue Wilde manner is the strenght of Klashorst. It is his unique footprint in the world of International Art. His restless style is unique and encompassed.

Learn 15 simple anxiety art therapy activities that can help reduce anxiety and lower stress. Feel calm instantly! Art Therapy Activities for Adults

When is the last time as an adult that you took time out of your day to just ... play? Try out these quick creativity exercises—then see how our co-founders do, in this battle of creative wits.

I created this 30 day self-love challenge to be super easy and fun because I want to make sure it’s a challenge you can complete.

Check out 10 relaxing and expressive art therapy activities that help promote mental wellness & growth while getting you in a creative mood!

The self-care challenge is meant to help you see what a difference 5 minutes can make in your mood. See art activities you can do to relax in 5 minutes.

The people in Carl Beazley's portraits seem to be fighting internal battles to hold back their grimaces and make straight faces. His oil paintings feature young people wearing multiple expressions at once. Several small faces inhabit their full-sized heads, each one sending a conflicting signal. Some of Beazley's portraits look like a time lapse of a single gesture, while others are meant to confuse and amuse viewers with their incongruities.

It is no secret that expressive collage is my favourite modality to practice and to teach. Spontaneous collage can be so revealing of what is going on within our inner world. This video demo shows you how to create a collage as a form of emotional catharsis (release). I welcome...

Learn 15 simple anxiety art therapy activities that can help reduce anxiety and lower stress. Feel calm instantly! Art Therapy Activities for Adults

The Urge to Express Authentically Expressive art requires no special talent, skill or inspiration. Because your original style is already within, you are already good enough to begin expressing yourself. You are creative and whole, now and always. Authentic creative expression simply amplifies and reminds you of your wholeness. Talent...

A Love for Collage Over the past ten years, I have created hundreds of collages. When I first started my therapeutic collage journey, I found that my intuitive collages helped me to release uncomfortable emotions. In my early days of collaging, I did not alway understand what my inner symbolism...

Creative arts and support offer chance to break the silence

You are the choice point...the place where choice meets chooser. You choose what you wear and what you think. How do you choose to be your best self?

It is no secret that expressive collage is my favourite modality to practice and to teach. Spontaneous collage can be so revealing of what is going on within our inner world. This video demo shows you how to create a collage as a form of emotional catharsis (release). I welcome...

Humans are cool. REALLY cool, actually. We’re full of complexities and eccentricities and a uniqueness that makes us one in a million! We can see ourselves in the mirror. We can see ourselves in photos. But have you ever seen yourself in a collage?! Here’s your chance to create a self portrai